Broadband Information
At EIN, we want our customers to have information to more fully understand and enjoy the services we offer. To help keep customers informed about our mass market broadband Internet access services, the EIN website (easyinternetnow.com) describes the mass market wireless and wired broadband Internet access services we offer. In this document, we provide information about the network practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms applicable to our mass market wired connections consistent with the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Rules. This information should help customers make informed choices about how to use those services, and will assist providers of Internet applications, content and services in developing, marketing and maintaining their Internet offerings. We encourage mass market customers and other users of our network to familiarize themselves with this information, and to provide EIN with feedback about our mass market broadband Internet access services so that we can continue to provide an excellent experience.
Nothing in this document changes your rights and obligations, or ours, under our terms of service associated with the applicable products, Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) or Privacy Policy. This document and the information contained in it are provided for informational purposes only and may be changed at any time, without notice.
Network Practices
EIN strives to provide a high-quality Internet experience for all of our customers. Because the Internet consists of multiple interconnected networks and most Internet end points (e.g., websites and other content providers) are not directly connected to the EIN network, EIN must connect to and exchange traffic with other networks to provide its subscribers the capability of uploading data to or downloading data from Internet end points that are connected to those networks. To that end, EIN has entered into commercially negotiated agreements to exchange traffic with those networks (and the networks with which those networks are connected) on mutually agreeable terms. The links EIN and other networks use to exchange such traffic may become congested at times. Consistent with its agreements with those other networks and its long-standing practice, EIN may establish or expand the connections between its network and other networks, but only on mutually agreeable terms. If EIN is unable to reach agreement on terms of interconnection or network expansion with these other networks, it could affect customers’ ability to upload or download data to Internet endpoints connected to those networks. EIN does not guarantee that it will establish or expand the connections between its network and other networks, or that subscribers will be able to upload data to or download data from Internet end points connected to other networks at any particular speed.
In addition, like the other networks that make up the Internet, the EIN network is a shared network, which means that the transmission links and other network resources used to provide broadband services are shared among EIN’s subscribers. EIN manages this network for the benefit of all users based on a variety of factors, and our technical expertise. Nonetheless, temporary congestion may occur when a large number of customers in a concentrated area access the network at the same time or when some customers consume a very large amount of network capacity during busy periods, such as at stadium events, during peak usage times, or during planned network maintenance.
As is common in the industry, we use network management practices and other tools to manage network resources for the benefit of all of our broadband customers, especially during periods when network demand exceeds available network resources (also known as “congestion”). As you would expect, our network management practices and our service offerings have evolved over time to benefit our customers and take advantage of the billions we have spent to expand and augment our networks. EIN does not favor certain Internet applications by blocking, throttling or modifying particular protocols, protocol ports, or protocol fields in ways not prescribed by the protocol standards. However, in response to a specific security threat against our network or our customers, EIN may occasionally need to limit the flow of traffic from certain locations or take other appropriate actions. In addition, we prevent the use of certain ports on our wired Internet access services to help protect our customers and network against malicious activity.
The EIN Copyright Alert Program was established to respond to alleged copyright infringement activities using peer-to-peer file sharing, and attempts to educate customers about the importance of protecting copyright and lawful use of content available over the Internet. Under the program, content owners may notify EIN of alleged copyright infringement based on the IP address of a user. EIN then will attempt to identify a subscriber account based on that IP address and forward a copyright alert to the subscriber account, advising the account holder of the allegation and providing information about online copyright infringement. If a subscriber receives additional alerts, we may temporarily redirect the account holder’s broadband Internet access service to a webpage where the account holder must review material on the importance of copyright and the lawful use of content available over the Internet. Upon completion of this review, such redirection will be discontinued and the subscriber’s service will be restored to normal. After this stage, if a subscriber continues to receive additional alerts, then EIN may take action consistent with Section 512(i) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which may result in termination of the subscriber/accountholder’s broadband Internet access service. Account holders’ personally identifiable information is protected throughout this process —EIN will not provide such information to content owners unless required to do so by court order.
EIN takes the security of our customers and our network very seriously. We proactively monitor network activity to help guard against a wide range of security threats, including viruses, botnets, worms, distributed denial of service attacks, SPAM, and other harmful activity. We encourage customers to adopt their own security practices.
We use a variety of network tools to monitor network activity and health to maintain its stability and functionality, to protect the network against threats, and for other operational purposes. We store the information we gather through this monitoring for only as long as we have a business purpose to maintain it. The EIN Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use and share this information. You can view EIN’s Privacy Policy at: https://easyinternetnow.com/privacy-policy.
If we detect a security threat, we will typically attempt to isolate the threat and minimize the impact to network service. We may use a variety of security measures to protect the network, including blocking malicious or unlawful traffic, redirecting the flow of traffic over some portions of our network, or taking other actions to address the threat. For example, as described in more detail below, we block certain ports that transfer malicious or disruptive traffic (such as Ports 25, 135, 139, 445, and 1900). We attempt to limit actions to the specific portions of our network or customer base impacted by the security threat and only for as long as necessary to mitigate the threat.
EIN may scan or analyze network addresses that are registered through EIN, including addresses that may have been delegated to customers, and/or routes that originate from EIN-provided networks to detect vulnerabilities that might be used to compromise EIN or customer assets or might be used in attacks against others. In doing so, we seek to avoid disrupting network service to customers. We may use information derived from these activities to identify and address security issues or to notify customers of issues.
As noted above, EIN blocks certain ports that transfer malicious or disruptive traffic to protect our customers and our network. Below is more information about port blocking that is currently in place. We may block additional ports in the future based upon threat assessments.
Port 0/TCP: Port 0 is a reserved port. This port should not be used for any applications. Blocking protects our customers from potentially harmful types of network abuses. Port 19/UDP: Port 19 Chargen is a protocol designed to generate a stream of characters for debugging and measurement. Because more recent tools have been developed for measurement and debugging purposes, blocking protects against use of this port in Reflective DDOS attacks. Port 25/TCP: Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) is used to send email. Port 25/TCP may be blocked from customers with dynamically-assigned Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to protect systems from becoming a mail relay for SPAM. Customers can subscribe to EIN SMTP services if they need to host an SMTP server on the Internet. Port 68/UDP: Port 68 is used to obtain dynamic IP address information from a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server. Port 68 may be blocked to eliminate the risk of exposure to a rogue DHCP server. Port 123/UDP: Network Time Protocol (NTP) is used to accurately synchronize computer time of day to a reference time server. Some aspects of Port 123 may be limited to minimize malicious use. Poorly-configured NTP servers can be used for Reflective DDOS attacks, and some devices provide NTP service inadvertently, which exacerbates the port’s malicious use. Port 135/TCP: NetBIOS is a network file sharing protocol and is also known as Common Internet File System or LanManager. Blocking protects customers from exposing files unintentionally, worms, and viruses. Port 139/TCP: NetBIOS is a network file sharing protocol and is also known as Common Internet File System or LanManager. Blocking protects customers from exposing critical system files unintentionally, which could give system access to a malicious actor. Port 445/TCP: NetBIOS is a network file sharing protocol and is also known as Common Internet File System or LanManager. Blocking mitigates a potential threat to certain operating systems. Similar to our blocking of Ports 135 and 139, blocking Port 445 protects customers from exposing files unintentionally, worms, and viruses. Port 520/UDP: RIPv1 – UDP port 520 is used by the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) to share network routing information. RIPv1 was designed to support route information sharing on small classful (class A, B, C, D) networks and has limited usefulness in today’s classless networks. Port 520 has been used by malicious actors to generate Reflective DDOS attacks. Port 1900/UDP: Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a protocol standard designed to allow device discovery over a local network. Some home routers may expose this port to the Internet, which could allow attackers to defeat the security attributes of Network Address Translation (NAT) and allow attackers to use the port for Reflective DDOS attacks. Does EIN restrict the types of devices that customers can use with its mass market broadband Internet access services? EIN customers may use devices of their choice (PC, Smartphones, Tablets, Smart TV, etc.) to connect to our wired broadband Internet access service via the wiring at their home or business premises, or via Wi-Fi connected to their EIN wired broadband Internet access service (connection options vary based on device capabilities). EIN generally does not support IEEE2 802.11b or earlier Wi-Fi protocols. Devices must also be used in a manner consistent with our terms of service and Acceptable Use Policy. For example, some data plans are designated for use with only a basic phone or smartphone, in which case customers may not use their device to provide an Internet Access connection to other equipment/devices (such as computers, netbooks, tablets, other phones, USB modems, network routers, media players, gaming consoles, or other data-capable devices) by tethering devices together, by SIM card transfer, or any other means.
Performance Characteristics
EIN offers many mass market broadband Internet access service options, each of which may have a different service capability speed. The term speed is commonly used as a shorthand way to describe the capacity at which a particular mass market broadband Internet access service can transmit data. This capacity is typically measured in the number of kilobits, megabits or gigabits that can be transmitted in one second (Kbps, Mbps or Gbps). Some applications, like a short email without attachments or basic web browsing, do not require high service capability speeds to function optimally. Other activities, like transferring large data files, can be performed faster with higher-speed services. Your service capability speed may not be suitable for some applications, particularly those involving real-time or near real-time, high-bandwidth uses such as streaming video or video conferencing.
Because service performance varies on an end-to-end basis, EIN’s service capability speeds are limited to, and measured between, your location and a point on EIN’s network, which constitutes only one segment of the end to end transmission path connecting your location to Internet websites or content providers. End-to-end performance of your service depends on a variety of factors, including: the number of subscribers simultaneously using the network; customer location; destination and traffic on the Internet; Wi-Fi connectivity; the capabilities and performance of your Local Area Network (LAN); interference with high frequency spectrum on your telephone line; wiring inside your premises, office or apartment; the capacity or performance of your devices or modem; the server with which you are communicating; internal network management factors (including overhead, which refers to the various control and signaling data required to achieve the reliable transmission of Internet access data); and the networks you and others are using when communicating.
EIN offers a wide variety of services to its customers (including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Internet Protocol (IP)-video, unified messaging, Voice over LTE (VoLTE), enterprise networking services, and other services), which share EIN’s network infrastructure and may affect the availability of network resources for broadband Internet access services. Your use of these services may affect the performance of your mass market broadband Internet access service. These services may rely on particular network practices to assign different levels of priority dynamically or statically. EIN does not currently have the capability to make any such functionality available to edge providers. In addition, although EIN engineers its network to accommodate all users and user types based on a variety of factors, including average and anticipated peak usage of the network, many factors cannot be anticipated or are outside of EIN’s control. These factors can impact the availability of network resources for mass market broadband Internet access services at any particular time. Consequently, EIN does not guarantee the performance of your service on an end-to-end basis.
Other factors that are relevant to specific services include, but are not limited to, the following: Wired Services. Service performance may be affected by the wiring inside your premises, the distance between your premises and an EIN central office, the capabilities of your computer, and the applications you use. In addition, to provide our U-verse TV customers with a consistently high-quality video service, the speed of EIN broadband Internet access service may be reduced when a customer is using his or her U-verse TV service in a manner that requires high bandwidth. Please click here for our High-Speed Internet Access Terms of Service.
Because many different factors can affect the performance of your mass market broadband Internet access service, EIN does not guarantee specific performance levels (such as of speed or latency or packet loss) for our mass market broadband Internet access services. We strive to manage our network to provide you optimal performance. The performance you can expect to receive from the mass market broadband Internet access services we offer is described below. Wired Service.
EIN offers mass market wired broadband Internet access services in discrete speed tiers. Our mass market wired broadband Internet access customers should expect to see service capability speeds within the speed tier of their service plan. For example, a customer with EIN’s High Speed Internet Starter Service should expect service capability download speeds between 3.1 and 6.0 Mbps.
Latency
Latency, also known as delay, is the amount of time from when a data packet is sent to when it is received. For mass market broadband Internet access services, latency is usually expressed as the round-trip time in milliseconds (ms) that it takes for a data packet to travel between two end points on the Internet (from point A to point B and then back to point A). Some applications, such as email, can tolerate a substantial amount of latency without any noticeable impact on the application’s performance. Other applications, such as real-time video conferencing, require lower latency to function properly. End-to-end latency reflects the cumulative effect of the individual latencies that occur along the end-to-end network path. Although latencies can vary due to several factors, including some beyond EIN’s control, our mass market broadband Internet access service customers can typically expect the following round-trip latencies when accessing the Internet:
Packet Loss
Packet loss occurs when one or more packets of data traveling across the network fail to reach their destination, typically due to network congestion, and is measured as a percentage of packets lost with respect to packets sent. A small percentage of packet loss is inevitable, and indeed desirable, in Internet protocol networks and applications. These networks and applications have been designed to tolerate dropped packets and rely on packet retransmission to replace such packets to maintain high speed transmission of data across the Internet. Without some packet loss, network (and thus application) performance could degrade significantly.
Terms of Service
At EIN, we take our customers’ privacy very seriously. We have a comprehensive Privacy Policy that applies to all uses of EIN products and services. This Privacy Policy identifies and describes the way EIN uses and protects the information we collect about customers and users. You can view the EIN Privacy Policy at https://easyinternetnow.com/privacy-policy.
Where can I get assistance if I have a concern or need more information about my EIN broadband Internet access service?
If you have questions or concerns about your mass market EIN broadband Internet access service, please contact us athttps://easyinternetnow.com/support.
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